Budding Igbo campaigner, Noble Igwe, has faced mockery and criticism online over his unfounded criticism of the Federal Government for failing to provide a seaport in the southeast despite the region’s obvious lack of the most important element required for one to be built: a sea.
The southeast is a landlocked region within Nigeria with a charged secessionist history. Although some leaders of the region lay claims to states and geographical areas in nearby South-South geopolitical zone, especially key areas that border the sea and are rich in oil resources, ethnic groups indigenous to the area have rejected such claims while slamming eastern leaders propagating as ‘land grabbers’.
Igwe reignited the acrimonious debates with his tweet on Sunday, as some suspect he is of the same ‘expansionist’ mindset by calling for a seaport in a landlocked region. Either that or he is ignorant of his region’s realities and thus lacks a basis for his criticism.
He said, “The Igbo businessmen have asked the Fed Gov for a befitting seaport in the SE to allow him send his container directly to SE but today people who have come to buy products are being accused of trying to “ Overrun Yoruba”.
Noble Igwe, similar to other Igbo campaigners, have targeted Yoruba in blistering, ethnic-charged criticism over the 2023 presidential election. Obi of the Labour Party, whom Noble supports, is reported to have initiated the ethnic barbs when he uncritically amplified an unverified propagandist attack on the Yoruba on national media.
He accused the Yoruba of refusing to back his presidential ambition over fears that he would cause an Igbo resurgence, pointing to a WhatsApp message of doubtful existence and origins.
Responding to Noble Igwe, online commenters have pointed him to the geographical limitations of the region and other efforts by the Federal Government to encourage the usage of ports located outside the southwest region and in close proximity to the southeast.
Others accused him of imagining the southeast to be inclusive of areas in the oil-rich Delta, the result of what they described as an ‘expansionist mindset’.